


Grow As We Go

by OrangeMeringue



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Family Bonding, Splinter has several mid-life crises while being a single father of four, also a secret sixth character who's only technically canon and hasn't had a single scene, turtle tots!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27528223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeMeringue/pseuds/OrangeMeringue
Summary: Everyone knows how Splinter choses to live his life after his sons have grown into teenagers, but how did he manage to get by thirteen years before that? How did a newly mutated Lou Jitsu, stuck with four strange baby turtles, grow into the father we all know and love?
Comments: 15
Kudos: 98





	1. Alive, But Not Quite Living

At this point, the only thing Lou Jitsu could do was reminisce. His own self was the only thing that he had any remote control of anymore, having lost not only his freedom but his fighting spirit when he’d finally snapped and refused to participate in Big Mama's barbaric Battle Nexus any longer. 

His last fight had been with a particularly nasty troll that had done a number on his already battered body. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been able to handle it- he beat the troll in record time and had an entire stadium’s worth of screaming fans to show for it. Fans. People who admired him, chanting his name over and over as if he were the only thing that existed at that moment. Something he used to love so dearly had become so bittersweet, and with the added salt in the wound that was Big Mama ogling down at him from her respective seat in the observer box, Lou knew he could no longer keep living this way. 

He was an idol in the Hidden City. He had always been, ever since the first day Big Mama brought him down and forced him to fight. She, who was hardly ever partial about her champions, had vouched so heavily for Lou that the rest of the city hardly needed any prompting to begin loving him as well. He’d fought against it, at first, struggling against his not quite ex-fiance after every battle, but her strength always far outmatched his own. And he couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. Even after all she’d done. 

So, eventually, Lou gave up trying to escape. And when Big Mama took notice of this, she was ecstatic. He graduated overnight from a musty iron cell to a five-star suite in her hotel. He got three meals a day -and good ones, at that- and his time in the Battle Nexus increased. He was on nearly every screen in the Hidden City 24/7. He was finally the star he’d always dreamed of being. 

Then he started refusing to fight, and all of that was stripped from him without hesitation. 

He was back in his old cell, no more comfortable bed, and no more meals he could stomach without gagging. His security decreased, but eventually, he began to miss the constant banter he used to have with his guards. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t become invested in the Yōkai gossip, even if it had just been an excuse to talk to somebody-  _ anybody _ who would indulge him in a conversation. 

It had been almost a year since he’d quit now. Almost a year since he’d finally grown a spine and stood up to Big Mama, furiously refusing to glorify her vicious pit of death any longer. Honestly, he’d been surprised when she hadn’t chucked him straight out the window of her office, and instead ordered her guards to drag him back to his cell. 

Big Mama was in the same boat as him, he supposed. Neither of them could muster the courage to raise a hand to the other. 

All that had happened so many months ago, and yet, to Lou it still felt like it had only been a couple of hours. Time always managed to weave so closely together in that cell, the only indication he had of the passage of days being the meals that were delivered, or when he started getting so bone-achingly tired that he ended up passing out where he was sitting. 

It was really no surprise he ended up making friends with a rat. 

It was the only creature around that didn’t seem to actively despise him, really. It had snuck in through his food slot out of the blue one day, and Lou welcomed the new face -however insane that sounded. It was a nice change of pace, being able to take care of something instead of being forced to harm it. He fed the rat portions of his meals, let it run around and climb over him for the barest form of enrichment he could provide, and was delighted to find that, every morning when he woke up, the rat was still there. 

Maybe it was sad he’d become this lonely, but he really couldn’t find it in him to care. The old Lou Jitsu would have never wasted valuable recording time playing with some random jail rat, but he was certainly not the old Lou Jitsu anymore. The old Lou Jitsu would never have stopped trying to break out and return to his old life, but the new Lou Jitsu had lost his fight. No, not lost. He’d forced it out himself. It had been a conscious choice: he’d sworn, with the rat as his witness, that he would never hurt another creature as long as he lived. 

And that is how the gargoyles found him. 

Lou didn’t know what to expect when he heard a loud bang against the door to his cell one particularly long afternoon while he was trying to meditate. He thought, perhaps, a new guard had gotten turned around and accidentally ran into something, but that theory was thrown completely out the window when two pint-sized flying gargoyles slammed the door open and demanded Lou come with them. 

He tried his best to mask his surprise, simply shaking his head and returning to his meditation. But the door to his cell hadn’t been open in nearly a year. In the past, he might have tried to make a run for it, but now he simply couldn’t muster the courage. 

He wasn’t going to fight for Big Mama, he told them. It was just like her to send a couple of fresh faces to try and break him after months of solitude, but he was determined to stand his ground. He wouldn’t change his mind. 

But no. These gargoyles weren’t sent by Big Mama, they claimed. They worked for a man called Draxum, who wanted to use Lou for some kind of experiment. 

An experiment? What kind of experiment?

Weird and unsafe, they said. 

Lou risked a look at the wide-open door the gargoyles were blocking. If he tried to run now he’d surely be caught, if not by Big Mama, by one of her guards. But maybe, just maybe, if he were “kidnapped”...it could happen. He could finally escape. 

So he agreed. No matter how weird or unsafe the gargoyles claimed these experiments were, if he agreed, he’d be free, and he’d never have to fight again. Just a few pokes and prods with a couple of unsanitary needles, maybe he’d lose a hand or something -it was still preferable to moping around in a cell for the rest of his natural life- and that would be it. He’d be gone. 

So, just like that, Lou was out, escaping through the open door, down the barren halls with the roar of the Battle Nexus in the background, and out into the Hidden City. There had been no one watching for him. He hadn’t been seen in months, of course, so why would they worry about his escape? 

But he’d escaped now, following his winged rescuers down the streets of the city, towards a large, towering laboratory in the distance. 

Lou really hoped he’d made the right call.


	2. Weird, Unsafe Experiments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lou is perfectly content playing victim to a series of sketchy experiments done by a certain warrior alchemist, but soon a new factor is introduced that makes him reconsider.

Given the much-appreciated change in scenery, Lou really couldn’t object to being shoved in a cage of vines by Baron Draxum. 

He had quite literally signed up for this, after all. He may not have predicted the entirety of it -certainly not the goat-like appearance of the apparent warrior alchemist that would be experimenting on him, or the cages that lined the walls all around him, filled to the brim with various glowering and snarling animal Yōkai- but if it was the price he had to pay for his future freedom, he’d do it. 

And, while Lou may not have been the most grateful about being shoved in yet another cage, it was a welcome change, and, at the very least, he was no longer alone. Not only did he have the full attention of Draxum and his strange hench-goyles, but he also still had his rat tucked away in his suit pocket, sleeping soundly, not seeming to care whatsoever that they had been relocated.

And, as the cherry on top, there was a bucket of four baby turtles right next to his cell. 

Admittedly, Lou had always been interested in animals. He didn’t know much about any of them -which is why he never had a pet in his old life, he supposed- but he’d always found himself drawn to the various birds that always crashed his shoots or any dog he happened to run into on the sidewalk. And, just like he was in his old life, Lou was drawn to these animals now. 

He reached through the vines of his cage and picked up the first turtle that his hand touched, pulling it back through his bars and holding it securely in his hands. Lou couldn’t name the species, but made note of the two red stripes on either side of its head. 

He would call it “Green”. 

Reaching back through the vines, he picked up a second turtle and pulled it through. It was spiky and had a sharp beak, easily the largest of the bunch. 

He would call it “Green #2”. 

...Okay, maybe that wasn’t the smartest idea. He was definitely going to mix them up at this rate. 

Before he had time to begin brainstorming another set of names, however, Draxum was suddenly behind him. He started talking, and Lou found himself wishing he hadn’t. Draxum was a fan, it seemed, and referred to him as great and legendary. The unbeatable Champion of the Battle Nexus. 

Not anymore, Lou explained. His fighting days were over. He was serious about his pacifism, and, to prove it, he leaned over and kissed the spiky turtle in his right hand. 

It bit him. Straight on the lip.  _ Ow _ . Lou let out a string of curses, bringing the turtle away from him as he glared it down. Was this the thanks he got for trying to be friendly with these creatures? 

One look in the spiky turtle’s beady little eyes, however, told him he wouldn't be able to stay mad at Green #2 for long. 

Then the vines around him were receding, and Draxum was stepping forward. He assured him there would be no need to fight, then the turtles were snatched from his grasp. Lou wasn’t sure why, but he protested, fighting briefly against the vines that snaked from the ground and curled around his wrists and ankles. He was pinned to the pillar behind him, and the turtles placed back in their bucket. 

What was Draxum going to do with them? 

The alchemist dodged his question, going on and on about their survival techniques. Survival techniques? But they were just babies, weren’t they? The smallest one, who had several orange spots dotting its arms and legs, looked like it had only been born mere days ago. Wait -was it born? Or did turtles hatch from eggs? Lou had no idea. 

But he  _ did _ know that they weren’t supposed to be shoved in capsules of mysterious ooze, but that was what Draxum was doing to them. There were four slots right above Lou’s head, and each of them was being used to contain a turtle. Lou began to struggle against his restraints. 

What was the ooze? What was Draxum about to do?

_ Mutate _ them? 

Draxum confirmed.

Turn them into  _ monsters _ and  _ warriors _ ? No. He couldn’t. Lou wouldn’t let him go through with this. 

Lou had spent years forced to fight against the very merciless fighters Draxum hoped to create. It had been his entire life: hurting others for the sake of someone else. He wouldn't let Draxum force these clueless, harmless creatures through that. Lou had made many mistakes in his life, but they had done nothing to deserve this. He was going to save them, whatever it took. Even if it meant breaking his own vow of pacifism to do it. 

And that was what he did. Lou tore himself out of the grip of his restraints and straight through the cage of vines keeping him hostage. He could tell Draxum was surprised from the way he faltered when Lou came careening towards him, but he managed to regain his composure enough to dodge, sidestepping just before Lou slammed into the switch on the wall beside him. The capsules on the pillar slid open, and the four turtles toppled out, landing helplessly on the floor below. 

In a fit of rage, Draxum sprung at Lou. But he was ready. He met the alchemist head-on, the two of them became enthralled in battle, Lou desperately dodging any vine Draxum sent his way, and landing hits whenever he dared get close enough. 

He had almost forgotten the gravity of the situation until the pillar at the center of the lab exploded, and fire and ooze were sprayed all across the ground. 

Draxum was distracted now, desperately trying to stop his lab from going up in flames, giving Lou a chance to slip away unnoticed. But he wouldn’t be escaping alone. Lou scanned the lab wildly, looking for the faintest sign of the turtles amidst the chaos. Then he heard a distant cry and turned just in time to catch a glimpse of the four turtles still sprawled across the floor on the other side of the room. Lou wasted no time running over and sweeping them up in his arms. They looked different, he realized -ever so slightly more human- but he didn’t have time to contemplate it as he hugged them to his chest, scanning the room for an exit. 

That’s when he remembered the Yōkai trapped in the cells lining the walls, and his eyes were drawn to a big red button on the center pillar. It was an impulsive, automatic decision. These animals would die if Lou were to leave without freeing them, so he slammed the button and opened the cages, cradling the turtles tighter against him as the animals sprinted around him, screeching and howling, jumping over fire and ooze to stream through the lab’s exit. 

It was time for Lou to leave. But, wait- did he have everyone? One pat to his inside pocket reassured him that he was still carrying his rat with him. Still keeping the turtles cradled in his right arm, he took the rat out of his suit, but just before he could make a break for the exit, he was halted by a split-second betrayal. 

The rat bit him right on the hand, piercing his glove and making him curse and shake it off, the rat landing on all fours on the floor below, scurrying off towards the exit. 

Alone, the bite would have nothing, but seconds later a wave of ooze spurted from the central pillar, and Lou barely had enough time to shield the turtles against his chest, the thick green liquid seeping in through his clothes. 

His heart was suddenly slamming in his chest. Claws jutted from fingers and toes, splitting the tips of his gloves and shoes. A wave of pain shot through his spine, the only anchor to the world around him being the four creatures that had yet to stop clinging to his arm. 

What was  _ happening _ to him? 

It didn’t matter. 

He could manage the pain. He had to get out. He had to save them. 

Lou made a break for the exit, stumbling half-blind as his vision waxed and waned. He staggered and caught himself on the wall with his free hand. One look over his shoulder gave him one final moment of eye contact with Draxum, then a wall of flames roared to life between them, separating them and giving Lou nothing left to do but stagger out the exit and through the halls of Draxum’s castle. 

It was far quieter in the rest of the building than it had been in the lab, but Lou could feel the heat radiating through the walls. He could hear the creaking and groaning of the structure’s support beams as he ran, shoes squeaking and claws scratching against the polished floor. 

He burst through a set of double doors, and he was outside. 

The cold air was a wonder on his exposed skin and singed fur - _ fur _ ? Since when did he have fur?- but the crowd that was starting to gather around the slowly collapsing building reminded him that he couldn’t stop to rest. He was still in the Hidden City, and if Big Mama found him again... 

He couldn’t even think about it. He couldn’t let that happen. 

So he stumbled away from Draxum’s lab, not looking back for a second. Clawed hands cradled four newly mutated turtles carefully against his chest as they cried and squirmed. 

He was going to take care of them, he decided. 

He was going to take care of them if it killed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want you guys to know how HARD it is to write from the perspective of a man who can't tell the difference between two completely separate turtle species, so if you see him being able to distinguish them here but not in the show, no you didn't :)  
> I know these first two chapters are a bit short, but the next one should be way longer, so look forward to that! (These are meant to be a little scrappy and short to be honest, because they're just beginning events that we've all already seen. After this, it's all new and completely my own interpretation!)  
> Anyway, thank you guys for the support you've given the story so far, I really hope you keep enjoying it


	3. Escape From The Hidden City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lou has managed to give all his enemies the slip so far, but now he needs to find a way out of the Hidden City, and some aspects of his escape are a bit more difficult than expected. Especially when he didn't plan to be doing any them while looking after four children.

Lou’s life had taken a few odd turns in the recent years, but never before could he have imagined he’d end up here: sneaking around the backs of Hidden City market shops, snagging clothes from racks to hide his appearance, and even going as far as stealing an unwatched backpack off a vacant seat to hold the four turtles that hadn’t stopped squirming and squealing ever since they escaped Draxum’s lab. 

“Shhh, little ones! You do not want to get me arrested, do you?” 

After making away with all the materials Lou thought he would need for the next few days, he’d found a tight alleyway to rest in while he got his bearings, though it wasn’t an easy thing to do when he could hear the static of Hidden City Police radios every few minutes, and all his energy was currently focused on keeping his four turtles from giving away their hiding place. 

Currently, they were trapped within the cushy walls of the backpack Lou had allegedly stolen, which he’d slung over his chest, slightly unzipped so he could keep a watchful eye on the precious cargo inside. 

He’d also traded his Battle Nexus uniform out for a pair of green pants, and a brown and orange jacket that was a little flashier than he would have liked, but still leagues better than his easily recognizable uniform. He’d ditched his shoes and gloves as well: the claws he now possessed were far too long and sharp to be contained by any piece of fabric, but he supposed his newfound appearance did far more to help than hurt him. 

Big Mama’s guards were no doubt scouring the Hidden City for Lou Jitsu, Draxum was bound to be looking for a singed and scrappy human, and the police were searching for a sharp-witted thief and violent arsonist. As of now, Lou fit none of those descriptions. 

Then there was the unmistakable click of a police radio right by the entrance to the alleyway. Lou tensed, pushing his back flush against the wall behind him and pulling his backpack even closer to his chest. The turtles inside babbled in protest, and Lou released his grip in an instant, quickly reaching into the bag to pull the turtles out. 

“Hey, did you hear that?” 

Lou froze, turtles beginning to clamber up the sleeves of his jacket. There was a police officer right outside the alley. 

“I think it came from over here.” 

Lou brought all four turtles up into his arms, holding them gently beneath his chin, hoping and praying that the change of scenery would distract them from making noise. 

The biggest turtle of the bunch began climbing up onto his left shoulder, pulling on the collar of his jacket as his purple-patterned brother clung to Lou’s thumb with the strength of a miniscule python. The orange-spotted turtle began grabbing onto Lou’s hair to pull himself up onto the top of his head, while the red-striped one found his entertainment in hanging off of his biggest brother’s spiked shell, much to the former’s annoyance. 

Thankfully, all four of them chose to remain relatively quiet. 

“Eh, probably just the wind or something.” 

Lou let out a long breath of relief as the officer dismissed the alleyway and began walking away, footsteps getting quieter and quieter until they disappeared into the distant clamor of the nearby market. 

“You four are going to be the death of me,” Lou groaned, not even bothering to stop the purple-patterned turtle as he began lightly biting his knuckle. His beak was dull enough that it didn’t hurt much, anyway. 

“Alright, back in the bag, boys.” 

As gently as possible, Lou pried the turtle off of his thumb, placing him back in the bag, followed by the biggest turtle and the one clinging to him, despite their cries of protest. 

“Yes, yes- shhh,” Lou soothed, picking the last turtle up off of his head and giving him a small kiss on the shell, “I know, I know it’s dark and boring and you don’t like it, but you’ve got to stay in, otherwise we’re all going to get carted away by the police.” 

Obviously, the turtles didn’t understand, but apparently the presence of one another at the bottom of the bag combined with Lou's soothing voice was enough to get them to calm down. 

“Good,” Lou said, hoisting the bag higher over his chest and pushing himself off the ground, “now just be quiet, and we can all get out of here in one piece. Then I promise I will get you plenty of lettuce and, uh...carrots? Yes, that sounds right.” 

Taking one last glance at the turtles in his bag, Lou was relieved to find them completely distracted, the red-striped and orange-spotted one engaging in a playful fight while the other two watched on excitedly, nowhere near as upset as they’d been the first time Lou had forced them into the bag. 

“Alright,” Lou sighed, mentally hyping himself up as he stepped out of the alleyway, eyeing the market ahead of him, “we just need to find a way out. How hard can it be?”

\---

Lou kept one hand on his bag at all times as he made his way through the crowd. He could feel the turtles shuffling around and butting into each other inside the backpack, having the time of their lives, blissfully unaware of the terrible danger they were all in. Lou was starting to find that the more time he spent with them, the more he felt responsible for their safety. So he kept a careful watch on any and every passerby, eyes constantly scanning and moving, ready to jump into action at the slightest sign of hostility. 

But none of the Yōkai he passed seemed to so much as acknowledge him. They all had their own agendas, Lou supposed, and he didn’t stand out nearly as much as he’d feared he would. The only thing that ended up catching anyone else’s attention was the way that he was wearing his backpack the wrong way, cradling it to his chest like it held the most priceless treasures in the city. 

To him it did. And he was going to get these treasures up to the surface where they could be safe. He just...had to figure out  _ how _ . 

The Hidden City market was full of a wide variety of items, each one just as individual and unique as the Yōkai selling them. There were booths with clothes, which Lou made an effort to avoid, considering he’d stolen from one of them already, yet still managed to get his attention caught nonetheless. The clothes on sale were made mostly of elegant and flashy fabrics, beautiful oranges, reds, purples, blues, and any other color the human eye could comprehend, and even some they couldn’t. 

There were booths with food, as well, and the only reason Lou wasn’t stopping in his tracks in front of every cart wafting with mouth-watering smells and juicy food was that the pit of anxiety that had settled in his stomach long ago was enough to prevent him from feeling hungry. He hadn’t eaten since his last meal in the cell at the Battle Nexus, but he was still so hyped up on adrenaline and apprehension that he wasn’t sure he could eat if he tried. 

Were the turtles hungry? He didn’t know, and he chose not to dwell on the question. He didn’t have the money to buy them food anyway, but maybe they could find a few decent leftovers in the dumpsters at the end of the day. Even in the Hidden City, food sellers tended to throw things out that got a little too old, so, hopefully, the turtles wouldn’t mind some slightly browned fruit or stale bread. 

When was the last time Lou had had a decent meal? He didn’t dare reminisce that far back. Not now. Not when they were so close. 

Lou needed to focus. He had to come up with a plan- some way to escape the Hidden City. But the only way in or out was through some kind of portal, and Lou had no way of making one. He’d have to find an object or person that could do it for him. An object that he could buy with something other than money, or a person who didn’t care about a reward from Big Mama, Baron Draxum, or the Hidden City Police. 

He never said it would be easy. 

But Lou walked on nevertheless, hands resting protectively on the backpack hanging from his shoulders. His gaze lingered on the contents of every knick-knack and antique booth he passed, relying on every piece of knowledge about the Hidden City he possessed to find what he was looking for. But between the interference of the crowd and the constant distraction of restless baby turtles in his backpack, he had a hard time keeping his focus. He was forced to move on from several promising booths lest he attract attention to himself, all because one of the turtles had slammed against the side of the bag or tried to gnaw at his hand through the fabric. 

“Will you four behave?!” Lou hissed into the open pocket, earning a few strange looks from passersby, “this is no time for-”

Then he saw it. A small, easily dismissable cyan medallion on the table of an upcoming booth on his left. He’d recognize that item anywhere: Big Mama’s herself had used it many times to travel to and from the Hidden City when she didn’t want to make a grand display of going through her hotel. It was exactly what Lou was looking for, and although he knew it wouldn’t come cheap, he separated himself from the crowd, straightening his jacket and bag, whispering one last request of silence to the turtles before slowly approaching the booth. 

It was one of the smaller and less noticeable ones, lacking the color and pizzaz of the rest of the Hidden City market, kept stable by four rickety pillars with a brown cloth draped over them. At the front was a cheap, wood table, nearly invisible underneath the sheer amount of junk that crowded it. Lou noted a collection of small knives, a few cooking utensils, and a woodworking kit amongst them. Strung between the pillars were long strands of rope that held most of the bigger merchandise -weapons, namely- while the rest of the booth was crowded with an array of diversely sized wooden boxes, most tied together and hidden beneath sheets of dully colored fabric. 

“Can I help you, buddy?” 

Lou didn’t realize he’d been staring until the booth’s owner approached him from the other side of the table. He was a short, cat-like Yōkai with an eyepatch and lavender-shaded fur. His clothes matched the rugged and old-fashioned nature of his booth, and his no-nonsense expression instantly made Lou uneasy.

“Uh- yes, yes, I…” Lou trailed off, scanning the table below, then picking up the medallion that had caught his eye. It had a compass-like dial in the center and was covered in unintelligible symbols. It was definitely the one that would get him back to the surface. 

“How much are you going to pay me, kind sir, to take this piece of junk off your hands?” 

Lou hadn’t attempted to schmooze anyone in so long that he could only watch and pray that it worked. But from the raised brow and irritated ear-twitch the shopkeeper was giving him, it didn’t seem likely. 

“A piece like this’ll usually go for around 100 unicorns,” the shopkeeper explained, snatching the medallion from Lou’s hand, “but, since I don’t like you, I’m charging 120.” 

Lou winced. He’d almost forgotten that the Hidden City market had an almost entirely unicorn-based economy. Unfortunately, he had exactly as many unicorns as he did gold pieces.

“Oh, can’t we work something out?” Lou asked, “a fine man like yourself, surely there’s something else you want.” 

The clerk shrugged, “I’ll accept payment in gold.” 

Lou sighed, leaning his hands against the edge of the table. This had been such a long day, and he was so, so tired. 

“Please. I need that medallion. You have no idea what it means to me.” 

He felt the small hand of a baby turtle press against his chest from inside the bag, and almost teared up on the spot. Maybe he should have. Maybe that would have made the shopkeeper pity him. As if he weren’t pathetic enough already. 

“...Fine,” the clerk said, and Lou raised his head to look him in the eye, “there is one item I can think of, but if you ask me, I’d stick with the gold.” 

“What is it?” Lou asked.

“An elixir of strength. Super dangerous. Super illegal. Super outlawed. Think you can get it for me?”

“Yes!” Lou volunteered without hesitation. 

“Good. ‘Cuz it’s on Big Mama’s Nexus observation deck.” 

Lou froze as soon as the words left his mouth.  _ Her _ observation deck? In the Battle Nexus? Where he’d just narrowly escaped with his life? There was no way. Lou wouldn’t go back there. Not for all the gold in the Hidden City. 

“No deal,” he said, “that is  _ not _ worth the risk.” 

“Well, then cough up the unicorns, bud, ‘cuz I don’t give one of a kind portaling medallions to charity cases.” 

Lou’s blood was starting to boil. His hands shook in fists at his sides as he weighed his options. The way he saw it, he had three: infiltrate the Battle Nexus and grab the potion without being recognized, pick up a job and work himself to the bone until he had the unicorns to spare, or stay stuck in the Hidden City for the rest of his life. It was a lose/lose/lose situation. 

Then there was a high-pitched shriek from his backpack, and Lou was quickly snapped back to reality. His frustration dissipated as he quickly unzipped his bag to see what the problem was, only to find the orange-spotted turtle wailing away, but being embraced by his three brothers. By the looks of things, their roughhousing had gotten a bit out of hand. 

“Oh, well, what do we have here?” 

Before Lou could stop him, the shopkeeper reached over the table and hooked a paw around the top of his bag, pulling the pouch open to reveal the four turtles. 

“My, my, my. Talk about precious cargo.” 

The clerk reached his paw inside and plucked one of the turtles out, tearing him away from the others. It was the red-striped one, Lou realized as he tore the bag from the clerk’s grasp and zipped it back up, unable to shush the cries of the other turtles as he lunged for their stolen brother. 

The clerk held the turtle at arms-length as he kicked and squirmed beneath his claws. Lou made another swipe, teeth gritting and cheeks burning, but the shopkeeper stopped him with a paw to his bag, holding the turtle up to his good eye. 

“These aren’t normal turtles, ey?” 

“Give him back,” Lou demanded, words practically dripping aggression as he struggled against the clerk’s paw. Lou knew he could send him to the ground with a single move, but he didn’t want to risk making a scene or endangering the turtle that the clerk was now dangling high above his head. 

“You know, I wouldn’t mind taking these little guys off your hands. They’re worth about 100 G each, huh? You can have the medallion, and three more items of your choosing.” 

For a split second, Lou stopped struggling and thought. One turtle for the medallion? Just one? Then he and the others could escape. It was reasonable...right? The given turtle would probably be looked after and live a far more comfortable life than Lou could possibly provide. Maybe...maybe that was the right call. 

Then Lou took a closer look and saw the hungry glaze in the clerk’s eyes as he dangled the turtle above him, flailing and kicking until, eventually, he realized that would get him nowhere and started shrieking. 

The clerk flinched, not used to the sudden outbursts of a mutated baby turtle like Lou was. And, right on cue, the other three turtles began wailing in response to their brother. They missed him, Lou knew instantly. Even if they weren’t yet capable of critical thought, every being alive understood the feeling of something being taken from them. 

“They are  _ not _ for sale.” 

Lou snatched the red-striped turtle back in one swift movement, putting a couple steps between him and the clerk as he held the turtle underneath his chin, glaring protectively even when cries stopped and he nuzzled against Lou’s neck. He wouldn’t give them up. Not even one of them.

The clerk shrugged, “suit yourself. Battle Nexus is it. You know where to find me if you come out alive.” 

Lou kept his hard expression as he pressed a reassuring kiss to the top of the turtle’s head, gently dropping him back in his bag to reunite with his brothers in a fit of squealing and tackling.

“Save me the medallion, and you have a deal.” 

Lou extended his hand, and the clerk shook it. 

“Deal.”

\---

Lou could buy that he’d gotten himself roped into infiltrating the Battle Nexus after only recently having narrowly escaped with his life. What Lou  _ couldn’t _ buy was the fact that he was doing it with four children inside a bag strapped to his chest. 

In hindsight, it would have made a pretty good Lou Jitsu movie. 

He had contemplated leaving the turtles and their bag behind somewhere in a relatively safe alleyway so he could go about his mission quickly and without distraction or unnecessary noise, but after surveying the few alleys around the market, Lou decided they would be far safer staying with him. Besides, the turtles were starting to get a bit of separation anxiety, as was obvious by the number of times they climbed out of their bag and attempted to make their way back to Lou whenever he set them down to go over his plan or practice a few quick ninja moves. 

It was adorable, alright? How could he say no to those faces?

So here he was, standing at the entrance to the closed Battle Nexus arena, backpack strapped to his chest, completely frozen in place. Why? Because above the doors to the Battle Nexus arena, there was a line of reflective panels, and, currently, the only thing they had to reflect, was Lou. 

He was unrecognizable. He’d almost walked right underneath his own reflection without realizing it was him, because this... _ creature _ that was staring back at him wasn’t the Lou Jitsu he remembered. He had sharp fingers and claws, as well as pinkening skin, and the fur along his neck and face only getting thicker. He had a weird snout on his face, too, and no idea how he hadn’t noticed it sooner. His mouth was longer, with two front teeth that curved together like a rat’s. He’d been changing ever since that moment Draxum’s ooze hit him, he just hadn’t realized it. The turtles had gotten it all at once, but, for some reason, Lou was doomed to slowly change day-by-day.

There was a particularly rough  _ wham _ against the inside of the backpack, and Lou was finally pulled from his thoughts. He’d gotten more than used to the turtles’ playful roughhousing at this point, so most of their bumping and shifting didn’t disrupt him, but this particular play fight didn’t feel all that playful. 

“Hey- hey! What are you four doing in there?” 

Unzipping the top of the bag, Lou peeked in to see the red-striped turtle batting away at his bigger, spiky brother. They were both babbling away in their own little turtle language while their other brothers looked on from the sidelines. 

“Stop that!” Lou stuck his hand in to gently push them apart, and when the red-striped turtle fell onto his shell, he didn’t attempt to get back up. 

“I really need you to be on your best behavior, alright? No shouting or fighting unless you want to get doomed to be warrior slaves for all eternity.” 

Only when the turtles stared up at him with unaware, wide eyes did Lou realize just how much danger he was putting them in. He was supposed to be taking them away from the threat of being turned into merciless fighters, and if Big Mama so much as caught wind of their existence…

He couldn’t let that happen. 

“Just stay quiet, alright, boys? There will be a lot of, uh...turtle food in it for you.” 

An empty promise, really, but one that got them to quiet down, even if they likely didn’t understand a word he’d just said.

“Okay,” Lou put on a brave face as he zipped his bag back up, “Battle Nexus, here we come!” 

\---

It had been surprisingly easy for Lou to get into the building. The door wasn’t locked, because the entirety of the Hidden City knew exactly how stupid it was to steal from Big Mama. In addition, no guards were patrolling the halls by the entrance, meaning that Lou made it inside and down the hall with ease, keeping his steps quiet and hugging the wall to his back as it circled the currently silent battle arena. 

It was an off-day for the Battle Nexus. Long, long ago on a day like this, Lou would have been let out to peruse the streets of the city, taking a break from all the fighting to tour his eternal prison. Had his situation improved? He’d have to wait until he finished this mission to figure out. 

Unsurprisingly, there weren’t any guards stationed on the first level. Big Mama’s main goal on off-days wasn’t making sure no one got in, so much as making sure no one got out. So, likely, most of the guards would be stationed around the cells of the fighters, and, if Lou was lucky, the rest of them would be back at Big Mama’s hotel. 

Coming upon a flight of stairs on the other side of the hallway, Lou took them. He knew he’d need to get to the very top floor in order to access Big Mama’s observation deck, so kept climbing, practically sprinting up all three flights of stairs until there was nowhere left to go but forward, stepping off into an identical rounded hallway and hugging his back against the opposite wall once more. 

He just had to reach the deck, grab the elixir, sneak back down, and he’d be home free. The turtles had even started to softly snore in his bag. They were asleep, and nowhere near in danger of outing his position! Maybe Lou’s luck was starting to turn. 

After about a minute of carefully and quietly shimmying around the curve of the hall, the doorway to the deck came into view. Lou listened carefully as he approached, his newly flexible and highly effective pair of rat-like ears twitching against his head, but, even with his new and improved sense, he heard nothing. 

Lou slipped into the deck, scanning the room and letting out a breath he’d been holding for what seemed like hours when he confirmed that it was, indeed, empty. 

Still, Lou found himself quickly overwhelmed nonetheless. He’d been in the room before. He’d sat beside Big Mama on her front-row sofa and watched a battle between two of his enemies with a sickness in his stomach he couldn’t bear to put into words. He’d shouted, he’d broken, he’d lost his composure, and he’d refused to fight. Then he’d been hauled out by guards, cursing glaring daggers at his ex-lover as he went. 

The room smelled so strongly of her perfume that Lou almost felt like he was drowning in it. It was a scent he knew he’d never forget, for it had been so strongly ingrained in him, and so strongly against his will. He’d smelt it after every battle, every night in his five-star suite, every time he spoke to her, and every time she dismissed him like  _ she _ hadn’t been the one who kidnapped  _ him _ -

“No word from the patrol on the south side yet, Ma’am.” 

Oh no. Lou wasn’t as alone as he thought he’d be.

“And the police?” 

Oh _no_. Of all the off-days to visit, Big Mama just had to show up on _this_ _one_?

Lou could hear two sets of footsteps approaching, one of them made by the distinct, piercing click of a certain pair of heeled shoes that Lou would never be able to un-hear. He wasted no time seeking cover against the wall just beside the doorway, his right side pressed up against the drink bar that occupied an entire corner of the deck. 

“They’re still looking. They said they’d report back to us if they saw anything, but they’re pretty busy searching for that arsonist who destroyed Baron Draxum’s lab-”

“I don’t give a flying fizzy wink about _Baron Draxum_ or his short-sighted science experiments! He probably blew up his own lab for the adrenaline rush. But his problems are not my priority. My priority is _my_ _champion_.” 

Lou felt his heart stop in his chest, and he clutched his backpack tighter for some semblance of comfort. Big Mama was looking for him. He’d expected it, of course, but it was still so bone-chilling to hear it said out loud. And straight from the spider’s mouth, at that.

“We’re looking everywhere, Ma’am. We’ll find him.” 

The footsteps were getting closer now. They echoed in time with every slamming beat of Lou’s heart. He clutched his bag tighter, claws scraping at the material as he pressed himself against the wall, hoping if he wished hard enough that he could pass as invisible. 

“You obviously aren’t looking hard enough. He can’t have left the city, and it can’t be that no one’s seen him.  _ You’re _ not doing your job, and there are plenty of Yōkai who would give an arm and a leg to have it. So I suggest you get moving.” 

“Uh- yes, Big Mama!” 

“Now!” 

One pair of footsteps took off sprinting away from the deck, but the click of heels only got louder and louder until Lou had to clap a hand over his mouth to keep his breathing quiet. Big Mama was standing right outside the doorway. 

She breathed, quietly and even, a direct contrast from Lou’s borderline panicked hyperventilating. 

“Oh, my sassy sugar bear. What have you gotten yourself into?” 

He thought he was done right there. Big Mama was going to walk into the deck and find him and that would be that. But, instead, she simply turned and left. Lou listened as the click of heels on tile got quieter and quieter until he couldn’t hear them at all, then he let his hand fall and took in a gasping breath. His legs practically buckled underneath him as he slid to sit against the wall, hugging his bag to his chest like a lifeline as its contents began stirring and awakening from their nap. 

Fresh, hot tears began to stream down Lou’s face. He couldn’t stop them as they brimmed and burst from his eyes, though he was able to bite back his sobs in fear of being heard by anyone who happened to pass his pitiful hiding spot. His shoulders shook as he cried, and he couldn’t seem to stop clinging to his backpack. It was the only thing he had left. Or, rather, it contained the only things he had left. 

He closed his eyes, shaking and wishing himself away. There was the sound of a zipper, then a small hand on his nose. 

Lou blinked his eyes open, sobs subsiding momentarily under the distraction of his confusion. Then he realized who the hand belonged to: the little orange-spotted turtle had someone managed to climb up and out of the bag, and was now grabbing onto the whisker-like hair on either side of his nose. The turtle was babbling at him, and unintentionally drying his tears as he became bored with his whiskers and began patting at Lou’s face. 

“Oh, my boy…” 

Lou had stopped crying at that point. Not because his tears had run dry, but because he felt -strangely- better. He picked the turtle up out of the bag, cradling him to his chest with a gentleness he wasn’t quite sure he’d ever expressed. 

One hand fell from the turtle in his arms to the ones in his bag, and they climbed onto it without hesitation. Soon he was cradling all four of them to his chest, taking deep breaths as his tears began to dry and his breathing returned to normal. 

“Well,” Lou let out a broken chuckle as the largest turtle practically head locked his purple-patterned brother into a hug, “I think that is enough emotional vulnerability for one day. It’s time we finally got out of this place, yeah?” 

\---

Once Lou got back to his feet and managed to corral the turtles into their bag once more, the rest of the mission was a cakewalk. He located the strength elixir -a small container filled to the lid with neon red liquid- amongst the miscellaneous jars and bottles on the shelves of Big Mama’s bar. He took it without hesitation, and wisely opted to carry it out of the deck instead of storing it inside his backpack.

Lou descended the three flights of stairs to the Nexus’ bottom level in record time. He threw caution to the wind, sprinting down the hall and out the unlocked doors, not even caring that they slammed behind him as he tore down the street back toward the market, claws curled tightly around the neck of the bottle in his right hand, his left rested protectively on the bag that hung from his chest. 

Lou didn’t have as much stamina as he used to, but he didn’t stop running until he reached the market and had the booth of his buyer in view. He slowed his approach, catching his breath and calming his pounding heart as he made his way forward, then, when he reached the wood table that marked his finish line, he slammed the bottle down, rattling the knick-knacks scattered across it and startling the booth’s owner. 

“Woah,” he said, giving Lou a once-over with an expression that held a new respect, “you actually made it out alive.” 

“The medallion,” Lou demanded. He’d been denied his freedom too long. He finished the job: he was owed his payment. 

“Alright, alright,” the clerk said, reaching into his pocket and digging out the item Lou desired, “saved it just for you, buddy. Right here.” 

He flipped it up into the air, and Lou caught it, giving it a quick once-over to confirm that it was, indeed, the real thing. And it was. Lou had finally done it. He was finally going to leave the Hidden City. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lou is very relatable because I, too, would risk absolutely everything for those four baby turtles  
> This chapter is a very long contrast to the last two short ones, but I hoped you guys enjoy it nonetheless because it took a while to write   
> Comments are highly appreciated!


	4. It's Raining, It's Pouring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After many trials and tribulations, Lou has made it back to the surface. The only problem now is that he has nowhere to go.

Lou’s arrival at the surface was just about as underwhelming as possible. 

He’d been picturing his escape from the Hidden City for just as long as he’d been trapped in it. He’d imagined every possible scenario for what would happen upon his triumphant return to the surface, but none of them fit the dull scene he’d just stepped into. 

After using the medallion to draw the appropriate portaling symbol on a barren alley wall, it flashed and erupted, spilling the blue light of a working portal onto the walls around him. Lou wasted no time stepping in and stumbling through the static, clutching his backpack to his chest as he closed his eyes against the blinding light. 

Then his feet met solid ground again, and he opened his eyes just in time to see the portal close behind him. He slid the medallion into his pocket and looked around. A drop of water hit his forehead, then another, and another, until Lou realized it was starting to rain. 

It wasn’t something that happened in the Hidden City, and, although the water was already starting to drench his fur and soak through his clothes, Lou couldn’t help but feel relieved. He was out. He’d escaped, and it was  _ over _ . 

Rain pattered relentlessly against the roofs of the buildings surrounding him. He’d exited into another alleyway, though this one was far dimmer and more pungent than the one he’d stepped out of. It was dark, he realized. The sun had already set, and the only source of light was that of a distant street lamp from outside the alleyway. 

Lou began moving, clutching his bag to his chest and grinning like a fool as he made his way toward the light. He was home free. All he had to do was stagger into the street, catch the attention of someone -anyone- and explain what had happened. He would be rushed to a hospital, the turtles would either be cared for or marveled over -he’d worried about that later-, and he would finally be reunited with his friends and family. 

But one look down made him stop in his tracks, his hopeful train of thought disappearing as quickly as the smile on his face. 

It was impossible. Even if he  _ could _ find someone who wasn’t terrified by the appearance of a talking rat man, no one would believe his story in the slightest. He’d be locked in an insane asylum after the first sentence, if they didn’t decide to experiment on him first. 

Lou backed further into the alleyway, shuddering as rainwater began to drip down his neck. He needed to find shelter. If not for him, then for the turtles. He had to take this one step at a time. 

\---

Since the light of the day had already given away to the blackness of night, Lou didn’t have the luxury of spending hours looking for a good place to curl up and wait out the storm. He was shivering, teeth chattering despite his clothes and patchy fur, and thunder was beginning to roll in the sky above. He could only assume that the turtles were no better off. He remembered hearing something about them being reptiles, and reptiles being cold-blooded. 

It wasn’t the best set of circumstances Lou could have landed himself in. 

After about ten minutes of delving deeper into the alleyway, scouring the -thankfully- empty backstreets, Lou finally found an acceptable place to spend the night. It was barely liveable, really, but he knew he didn’t have much of a choice, so he crawled under the damp cover of the oversized cardboard box, scooting in until his full body was sheltered from the rain. 

There was a rough kick from inside the backpack, then a wail of anger, and Lou decided it was about time to let the turtles out. He scooted forward a bit, exposing his folded knees to the pelting rain, but leaving a fair amount of room in the box behind him. He unzipped the bag, reaching his hands in and picking the turtles up. They chirped in joy upon seeing Lou’s face, and he turned and let them roll out onto the floor of the box behind him. Three of them took off running immediately, eager to explore their new surroundings, but one stayed behind, clinging to Lou’s thumb. 

It was the purple-patterned one. Lou hadn’t exactly had time to observe him apart from the others before, but when he ran a finger over his shell, he hadn’t expected it to have a different texture. It wasn’t hard like his brother’s’: it was smooth and slightly malleable, like an extra layer of rough skin. 

Weird. Maybe he had a condition? Lou would look into it later. For now, he simply decided to keep a close eye on him, though of course that wasn’t possible to do 24/7, so Lou gently shook the turtle off of his hand and onto the shell of the red-striped turtle. They embraced each other automatically, rolling onto their sides and giggling away as their brothers continued to explore the box. 

With the turtles effectively distracted, Lou finally allowed himself to direct his attention away from them. He slumped over, curling his arms around the empty bag strapped to his chest as he stared out into the rain, listening to the constant patter of water on concrete and the squeals of the turtles behind him. For an immeasurable amount of time, Lou sat and stared. He sat and thought. 

Rainwater soaked through the cardboard above him, occasionally dripping down and hitting his shoulder or head. He was glad, he supposed, that he was starting to grow fur -which was something he never could’ve imagined himself admitting even a week ago. 

But now it was his reality. A startling, complex reality that he had asked for in no way whatsoever. 

Lou found himself tensing as thunder rolled overhead. It was just his luck, at this point. He couldn’t remember the last time there had been a storm this bad in New York City. Then again, this was the first time in years he’d been  _ in _ New York City. It was the first time in years he hadn’t been confined to some sort of cage. 

Then again, wasn’t he? 

He wasn’t trapped anymore. He wasn’t a slave to the Battle Nexus or anyone in the Hidden City. He was free...but not really. His appearance was startling enough to himself alone- if anyone else saw him he’d either be run out of town, killed, or subject to unthinkable experiments. And even if he survived all of that, there was still a chance -even if it was only a sliver- that word of him would get back to Baron Draxum or Big Mama. If Lou was being honest, he wasn’t sure they’d recognize him at this point, but he didn’t want to take that chance. He couldn’t get help. He couldn’t contact his family or friends. He was still stuck in the same cage he’d been ever since he’d entered the Hidden City. 

Lightning flashed, and Lou flinched. This storm was frying his nerves. He had never been afraid of thunder or lightning before, but loud noises hadn’t exactly been kind to him as of late. 

Thankfully, his steadily plummeting train of thought was interrupted by a sudden, ear-piercing wail, and Lou was pulled completely back to reality. 

The cry had, predictably, come from the sheltered space behind him. The four turtles had taken to curling up together at that point, exhausted from their exploration of the back of the cardboard box. And while they may have been drifting off to peaceful sleep before, they were wide awake now. The biggest of the four was holding two of the others tight in his arms, all three of them trembling while the youngest had yet to stop yelling, tears streaming nearly as fast and unforgiving as the rain. 

For a moment, Lou was frozen. He knew in the back of his mind that these turtles, just like him, had begun to change ever since Draxum’s experiment. They were no longer normal, he just hadn’t had time to fully comprehend it. And, while Lou wasn’t the slightest bit acquainted with turtle behavior, even he knew they were different. Normal turtles didn’t move like that. Normal turtles didn’t babble on and on for hours like babies learning to talk. Normal turtles didn’t hold each other, get scared of lightning, or start bawling as a result. 

Carefully, Lou reached his hands down to the orange-spotted turtle. 

“Hey, hey...little guy,” he soothed, gathering the turtle in his arms, running his calloused, clawed hands over his shell, being extra careful not to accidentally nick him somewhere vulnerable. 

“It’s alright. It is just lightning. Nothing to be afraid of.” 

Lou had never been good with kids. At least, he assumed he wasn’t. He’d never actually been around a child long enough to find out, and the only time he’d even thought about having kids himself was before the proposal. 

The proposal that had ruined his life. 

“It is going to be fine, little one. We will all get through this together.” 

At that point, Lou wasn’t sure if he was talking to the turtle or himself. 

Thankfully, his words of comfort seemed to work. The turtle had stopped crying at that point, and was now nuzzling against his neck, cooing softly as Lou pressed a small kiss to the top of his head. 

“Go play with your brothers,” Lou said, gently setting the turtle back on the floor of the box, laughing to himself as the younger brother immediately turned and charged straight at the other turtles, knocking them over and causing a playful ruckus to break out. 

Lou supposed, even if he was still stuck in a nearly unwinnable situation, at least he was no longer alone. 

Yes, the turtles were relentless and difficult to care for. They required near constant attention, needed to be watched for every moment they were awake, had already taken several figurative years off of his life, and, as growing boys, would need an amount of food, shelter, nurturing, and entertainment that not even Lou could provide from inside a damp cardboard box, but, strangely enough, he didn’t care. As hard as he knew it was going to be, one look at the turtles softly headbutting and chasing each other around the confined box told him there was still no way he could let them go. And even if he could, he didn’t want to. He’d saved them from a fire and a life as living weapons, and he was going to make sure their new lives were miles better than what Draxum had intended for them. 

He just hoped it was a promise he’d be able to keep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask me why all my main characters always end up staking out in cardboard boxes in alleyways, because I have no idea  
> This was just a nice -sort of filler- chapter with baby turtles being baby turtles  
> Comments are highly appreciated!


	5. Home Is Where The Heart Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lou attempts to make the best of a bad situation. Some things go wrong, some things go right, but, ultimately, his determination to help himself and his boys pays off.

Lou awoke the next morning to the sound of birds and a ray of sunlight striking his face. He found himself panicking for a split second, memory failing him as he struggled in search of an explanation. 

Lou’s eyes shot open, dread welling up inside him until he took a good look around and the memories came flooding back to him. He was alright, he realized. He’d escaped the Hidden City, and everything was fine. He had fallen asleep slumped against the side of the cardboard box, which had since dried, along with the alleyway’s contents, despite having been pelted with rain the night before. 

Lou took a moment to stretch out and straighten his posture, cracking his back and massaging the aches out of his legs. Looking over his shoulder, he felt himself smile upon seeing the four turtles curled up together in a pile at the back corner of the box. 

Lou let out a long sigh, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and leaning out of the box to take a look at the sky above. He was blinded by the light of the sun almost instantly, cursing, forced to bury his face in his hands as he scooted back into the box. 

It had been so long since he’d seen the sun. 

“Well, this is going to be a very long day,” Lou grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose, “alright. Time to get moving, boys.” 

The turtles didn’t budge as Lou carefully slipped his hands underneath them. They were heavy sleepers, apparently, and didn’t so much as stir even when Lou placed them back in their bag and zipped up the top.

Then a low, rumbling growl came from his gut, and Lou was suddenly hyper-aware of just how hungry he was. He hadn’t eaten in over a day, and the whole “getting mutated and escaping the Hidden City” fiasco had distracted him from his hunger so well that it hadn’t even come to the forefront of his mind until now. He wasn’t even sure when the turtles had had their last meal: between arguing with Draxum and blowing up his laboratory, he hadn’t gotten a chance to ask. 

What did they even eat in the first place? Human food? Turtle food? Lou didn’t even know what turtles ate regularly. He never exactly made a habit of researching random animals back in his movie star days, and it wasn’t as if he could just waltz into a library or pet store now. But what if he fed them the wrong thing and gave them food poisoning? What if they had allergies? 

...Did turtles get allergies? 

Lou let out a long sigh, burying his head in his hands as a spike of pain shot through his stomach, accompanied by another deafening growl. 

“A very long day indeed.”

\---

After abandoning their cardboard box to begin their trek through the labyrinth of the city’s alleyways, Lou and the turtles were pleasantly surprised to find that it was shaping up to be a warm and sunny afternoon. The boys surely enjoyed the newfound warmth, Lou assumed, as they began to stir inside his bag. They weren’t as restless as they’d been during Lou’s escape, and he was grateful that they seemed to be getting used to their situation. It would make things a lot easier. 

As soon as Lou finished that thought, however, a loud wail sounded from inside the backpack. It was quickly joined by another, then a third, until all four turtles were crying out from inside the bag. 

“Boys- please!” Lou begged, unzipping the top pouch and peering inside. The turtles only continued yelling, voices echoing off the blank brick walls that surrounded them.

“I know, I know you’re hungry,” Lou whispered, “just please-  _ please _ be quiet. You do not want to attract any unwanted attention.”

Lou doubted this portion of the alleys were habited -he hadn’t seen a single soul since he’d somehow managed to get himself hopelessly lost the night before- but he still didn’t want to risk anyone finding out about the turtles. 

One step at a time, Lou reminded himself. Right now, food and water was the priority. 

“Alright, just let me…” Lou reached into the bag and gently pulled the four turtles out -they were still small enough to be balanced on one forearm- and cradled them to his shoulder, eyes darting around the alley as he picked up his pace. 

The turtles’ cries began to cease as Lou continued to whisper comfort to them, though his attention was divided as he took blind lefts and rights down alleys that led seemingly nowhere. Then he heard it: the opening of a door up ahead and to his right. 

Lou slowed his pace, peeking his head around the wall to peer down the alleyway, only to find a human in a server’s uniform tossing a bag of trash into a dumpster pressed against the wall. Once the trash bag was discarded, the server re-entered the building back through the door they’d come. 

This was the perfect opportunity, and likely Lou’s only grand stroke of luck for the foreseeable future. He remembered something about restaurants often throwing out slightly stale or half-eaten leftovers as he sprinted up to the dumpster, using his free hand to shove the lid open and lean belly-up to the edge, holding his breath and ignoring the sting of rotten food in his nose as he hooked his claws around the neck of the topmost garbage bag, hoisting it out and dropping it clumsily on the ground beside him. 

Using his free hand to rip open the top of the bag, Lou was relieved to find that it was filled with sandwiches. Or, rather, scattered slices of bread packed in with lettuce, meat, and cheese. As undesirable as he knew it was, Lou had never been this hungry in his life. He scraped a quick sandwich together, clumsily pooling lettuce, meat and cheese between two slices of bread, and finishing in one bite, realizing as he chewed that the bread was hard and stale, and the lettuce had a slightly bitter taste to it. Or maybe that was just how lettuce tasted. He had no idea, and he didn’t care. He would’ve eaten nearly anything at that point to subside the gnawing hunger in his gut, so he sat there and ate, shoveling stale bread and ever so slightly rotten meats until the growl in his stomach subsided, and he finally felt full for the first time in days. 

It was refreshing, even if the food left a bitter taste in his mouth. But Lou quickly realized that he now had an entirely new problem to deal with: he was parched, his tongue practically turned to sandpaper in his mouth. He needed to find water now, but not before he took care of the turtles that were still kicking and squirming under his arm. 

Setting the boys on the ground, Lou quickly grabbed a handful of lettuce from the bag and placed it in front of them, cornering the boys so they couldn’t run off in any direction they pleased. Thankfully, it appeared the turtles were just as hungry as Lou had been and wasted no time snatching greens from the ground and using their abnormally sharp beaks to tear chunks off them. 

Deciding he could risk looking away for a moment, Lou pushed himself off the ground and made his way back to the dumpster. He pulled himself up so he could see inside, balancing with his knee on the edge of the open trash bin. 

Upon taking the previous garbage bag out, Lou had revealed the contents of a ripped bag right below. It was just normal trash from the restaurant’s patrons -plastic, wrappers, that sort of thing- but, low and behold, there was one treasure inside: a discarded plastic water bottle. And it was half full. 

Lou wasted no time reaching into the dumpster, claws inches away from snatching the bottle up when he slipped and fumbled -but caught himself before he could fall. He grabbed the bottle and jumped back off the edge, returning to the turtles only to find that their stash of lettuce had diminished by nearly half, and now the red-striped and purple-spotted turtles were fighting over a leaf they both had hands on. 

“Alright, alright,” Lou said, kneeling on the stone ground to pluck the turtles up, turning them away toward two different leaves, “there is plenty of food for all of you.” 

With shaky hands, Lou unscrewed the cap of his water bottle. He raised it to his lips, but just before he could start chugging, his eyes lowered to see the biggest turtle staring up at him. He’d just finished his last cut of lettuce, it seemed, and was transfixed with the bottle in Lou’s hand. 

The turtles were equally as parched. 

And they took priority. 

With a sigh, Lou lowered his bottle and set the cap on the ground in front of the spiked turtle. He poured until the cap was overflowing, and the turtle quickly grabbed it and began to drink, water pouring down his face and shoulders, making Lou laugh, despite the dryness in his throat. 

He repeated this process with the other three turtles until they stopped paying the bottle any mind and returned to playing out on the open stone, chasing each other around on the remains of their meal, squeals of fear and delight filling the alleyway as Lou downed the rest of the water in his bottle. 

There was a significantly smaller amount than there had been before the turtles got to it, but Lou didn’t mind. He would take all he could get at this point, even if all he could get was a quarter of a water bottle. It was much better than nothing. 

Once the bottle had been emptied, Lou tucked it away in a side pocket of his bag. Then he began the nearly impossible task of corralling the turtles. After a decent meal, however, they were all full of energy and had much more space to evade Lou’s clutches. This was all still a game to them, so they ran, ducking and diving out of the way with no inclination of anything bigger than the five of them in this alleyway at that very moment in time.

The biggest turtle was the first Lou managed to catch. He wasn’t as fast as his brothers, it appeared, and wasn’t as good at dodging and evading. The next to be caught was the purple-spotted one, who was put in the backpack right after his brother, then the red-striped one, and, finally, the smallest of them all, who Lou had to lure with a lettuce leaf to get him to stand still. 

Once all the turtles were in the bag, Lou zipped it up and got to his feet. He tied a knot at the top of the garbage bag of sandwiches and hoisted it over his shoulder. It was heavier than the backpack by a significant amount, but nothing the great Lou Jitsu couldn’t manage. He took it all with stride as he walked back into the maze of back alleys: the weight, the responsibility, and the ever-gnawing dryness in his mouth.

\---

They had food and water. Well- they had a storage compartment for water, which Lou figured was enough for now. The next thing they needed was shelter, and a permanent one. At least something that wasn’t a cardboard box that would just get them wet if it rained. 

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much real estate available for slowly mutating rat creatures in New York’s alleyways. 

Lou felt like he’d been walking for ages. The turtles had all settled down to nap at that point, so there was no disturbance coming from the backpack strapped to his chest, but he had to constantly switch hands to carry the garbage back that was slung over his shoulder. The weight of the food was starting to hurt his back and drag him down, but he kept going, if only to find a place for him and his boys to rest before nightfall. He could no longer see the sun at that point, and he knew it was only a matter of time before it started setting. 

But there was honestly, truly, nowhere to go. 

It seemed that Lou had reached a figurative dead end. He couldn’t leave the alleys, but how could he stay? He was second-guessing himself. Maybe he’d been thinking selfishly when he’d promised to keep and look after the turtles. How could he possibly look after them like this? He could barely look after himself. The old Lou couldn’t even keep a house plant alive for more than a week-

He reached a branch-off alleyway that led out onto a barren street, and froze. He stood and watched the street for what seemed like ages, taking in the lack of chaos and traffic. He supposed to just needed a moment of subtle calm. Just one, then he would go. 

Every so often a car would drive by or a person would pass on the sidewalk, but none of them seemed to notice him. Even if they did, what would they have done? If Lou saw a dirty, roughed up rat man in a New York alley, looking like it carried rabies and several other undesirable diseases, he would do anything but turn and confront it. 

He should get out of the line of sight, Lou decided. Then his eyes lowered and landed on a sewer hatch just a few feet away. 

No. Nope. No way. Lou was not resorting to living in a sewer. 

He turned to leave, but found he couldn’t force his feet to move. 

It could protect him from the elements, he reasoned. He wouldn’t have to deal with the constant threat of people stumbling upon him, and there might even be some clean water stashed away somewhere. It would be miles better than living in an alley. Did he really need another reason? 

Reluctantly, it was decided. Lou marched up to the hatch and displaced it with one muscle-packed tug. Peering down into the darkness, he found four ladders lining each side of the circular drop. Testing the waters, Lou dropped his garbage bag down the entrance, holding his ear to the grate and shooting occasional paranoid looks to the alley’s entrance, just to make sure he hadn’t drawn any unwanted attention. 

After about three seconds, Lou heard a loud thud that echoed up through the dark decline. 

Well, at least he knew there was a bottom, and that was good enough for him. 

Lou stepped onto the ladder rungs as carefully as possible, grabbing hold of the sewer lid when he was far enough down and pulling it back into place with a satisfying clunk that banished the natural light of the overworld and sent the decline into pitch-black darkness. 

Lou relied on touch as he made his descent down the ladder. The rungs were cold to the touch and smelt of metal, sending shivers up his arms as he went through the motions of climbing. Right foot down, right hand down, left foot down, left hand down, and repeat. He did this until he felt his foot brush against something that wasn’t metal and slowly felt it out until he realized he’d found the ground. He released the ladder, feeling around blindly for his garbage bag, and his foot caught on something hard and metal. He staggered and tripped with a loud curse, managing to turn himself at the very last second so his left side met the concrete ground instead of his backpack. 

Pain shot through his ribs, making him hiss, clutching his hip and rolling onto his back. That side was going to be sore for a while. 

Before Lou had time to inspect anything, however, he began to hear cries from inside his bag, and he felt his face pale at the thought that he might have hurt one of the turtles.

“It’s alright, my boys,” he soothed, wincing as he pushed himself up, one arm wrapping securely underneath the bottom of the bag, rocking it back and forth. 

“We just had a little bit of a fall, alright? It’s okay now.” 

Lou continued to rock the bag as the cries from the turtles echoed and ricocheted in the dark space. He felt out between his legs, blindly searching for the item he’d tripped on until his hand closed around something solid. Cold. Plastic and metal. Lou felt it out some more, and after a minute of trailing his hand across the surface, he realized it was a lantern. Probably discarded by some sewage worker a long time ago. 

Lou prayed that it still had batteries left.

His thumb grazed over the power button. He squeezed his eyes shut, clutching his bag of screaming turtles, and pressed. A nearly light hit his eyelids, and his eyes shot open, blinking against the sudden illumination of the room. 

Thankfully, the sudden light worked to distract the turtles as well, and their cries stopped mere moments after the lantern came on. 

The room was about what Lou had expected. Circular cement walls surrounded him in all but one direction: an unlit hallway that branched off into the rest of the sewer. His bag of food lay on the ground to his left, with the lantern laying on the ground between Lou’s legs. He sat it upright. It was gray and had a large crack down the middle, though he couldn’t tell if it had come from him or the person who left it behind. 

Then Lou remembered the turtles and quickly unzipped the top of his bag. After a split-second observation of their awed faces, however, Lou was relieved to find that they were all fine. Unharmed, and purely delighted to see his face. 

Lou decided to leave the bag unzipped as he continued onward. He pushed himself up off the ground and grabbed the lantern in his right hand, the garbage bag in his left. He continued like that into the darkened hallway, using the lantern to light the way. 

The hall was about the same as the rest of the sewer so far: concrete and cold. It wasn’t an unbearable cold, just uncomfortable: another stroke of luck. 

But the hallway was shorter than Lou had expected, and he soon found it splitting in two directions: left and right. He took the left, and exited into an even larger, vacant room. 

Lou couldn’t even begin to guess what purpose this served in a sewer -was he even in the sewers? He could barely smell the pungence he’d expected to be overwhelming.

The room was slightly intimidating. The cold had followed him all the way there, and his lantern only served to cast shadows on already suspicious corners. One sweep of the room, however, told him that it truly was empty. Other than a few cobwebs and the distant drip of water and gurgle of pipes, there was nothing but four concrete walls and a doorway. 

Lou shivered, and had to remind himself that he wasn’t locked anywhere anymore. The doorway was open. He could come and go anytime he pleased. 

It wasn’t an ideal home, but it was far better than a cardboard box in an alleyway. He could do something about the cold. He’d find blankets, and collect things to make the room less barren. He could find a dump, steal some discarded furniture, and he could turn his situation around. 

Lou was determined to remain positive. After all, he’d escaped the Hidden City with several bounties on his head. He could do anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter gave me some seriously frustrating writer's block, but I think there are still a few good scenes that came out of it and made pushing through the chapter worth while :) Hope you guys enjoyed this update!  
> Comments are highly appreciated!


	6. Breaking And Entering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looking for a source of food and materials to help him and his boys thrive in their new home, Lou turns to a setting from his old life, but ends up getting a bit more than he bargained for after trespassing on private property.

Ultimately, the bag of sandwiches didn’t last very long. In about a week, Lou and the turtles’ rations had dwindled to nothing more than a few slices of bread and cuts of lettuce. At least, Lou assumed it had been about a week. He didn’t know. It was hard to tell time from the sewers. 

If nothing else, Lou had solved their water problem by setting his plastic bottle out beside the manhole cover and allowing it to collect rainwater, but there was no easy fix for their food shortage. The turtles were already getting hungry, which Lou knew because they were picking more fights with each other than usual. With no other way to convey their emotions, when confronted with a problem, the turtles would either cry or fight, and it usually wasn’t hard to tell what they were upset about. 

But it was getting harder and harder for Lou to console them lately. It seemed like they were always at odds- waking him up in the middle of the night, or screaming at each other whenever Lou turned his back for a second to peek outside the common room or try to see down a hallway. 

Lou had lost so much sleep in the past week. His eyes always felt heavy, and he couldn’t seem to remember a time when he’d had the energy to fight foe after foe in the Battle Nexus. Now he could barely find the energy to pry the turtles away from each other and prevent another squabble. 

And if that weren’t enough, the time they didn’t spend fighting, sleeping, or eating, they spent exploring. They would split up and scamper around the confines of the common room, though sometimes in pairs, and sometimes as one big group. And sometimes Lou didn’t even know they were doing it until he looked around and saw them making a break for the exit. 

He swore these kids were taking years off his life. The days were blending in the most infuriating way, and it felt like mere hours after he’d woken up that he needed to sleep again. But he could never bring himself to fall asleep before the boys. Not before they were peacefully passed out, and no longer  _ fighting _ . 

“You are brothers!” he kept telling them- he would  _ stress _ it, “stop this! You are being incredibly unreasonable!” 

They didn’t understand him. Or if they did, they made no acknowledgement of it. Lou wasn’t even sure they’d  _ ever _ be able to understand him. Would they be able to speak at some point? They weren’t normal turtles in the slightest, but Lou still felt like that was a stretch. 

But with the way his life was going, he couldn’t say he’d be surprised. 

\---

It was time for a food run. Lou and the boys no longer had enough food left to get them through the remainder of the day, so it was time he returned to the surface to scavenge for more around the maze of alleyways. With the turtles, of course. There was still no way he could let them out of his sight. 

But they needed a lot more than food, too. It was cold in the sewers: blankets and clean clothes would soon become must-haves, though Lou had to admit he wasn’t sure where he’d find them. It still wasn’t as if he could just waltz into any charity operation and come out with the food and supplies he needed. 

Getting the turtles back into their travel bag was a task in itself. They’d already become accustomed to the big, open space of the common room and protested heavily upon being confined to the bag once more. It took Lou around ten minutes to catch them, but once they were in the bag and he hoisted it over his chest and began to sway and softly hum, the boys calmed down. 

They seemed to appreciate the fine art of panicked lullabies. 

With his lamp in hand, Lou made his way back through the sewers until he reached the walls lined with ladders. He left the lamp there on the ground and began to climb, feeling out above his head once he’d gotten far enough along until his clawed fingers brushed cold metal, and he shoved the manhole cover out of the way.

The alley hadn’t changed much since the last time Lou had been topside. It was around midday and, thankfully, the street that passed in front of the alley was equally as barren as last time. It appeared that Lou had picked one of the few less traveled spots of the city to make his new home. 

Well, once more into the fray. Lou hiked his bag higher onto his shoulders and turned to begin his hunt through the backstreets of New York.

\---

“This is ridiculous! Do you see this, my boys? Exactly, because there is nothing to see! Haven’t you people ever heard of wasting food by throwing large amounts of it into the garbage?!” 

Suffice to say, Lou’s search wasn’t going too well. He couldn’t count the number of trash cans and dumpsters he’d dug through, only to find that they were either empty or littered with inedible trash. Had Lou really chosen  _ garbage day _ of all days to go scavenging for food? 

He closed the lid of yet another disappointing dumpster with a sigh of defeat. This was getting him nowhere. He was miles away from the sewer entrance at that point, and the sun was starting to set beneath the tops of the buildings around him. He knew he should start making his way back, but he couldn’t bring himself to return without a single scrap of food to show for his troubles. He couldn’t, even if he wanted to: his stomach was growling and the turtles were getting restless again. They were all hungry. They needed this. 

That’s when Lou spotted something in the distance. A split-second saving grace. A towering apartment building so familiar it gave him the emotional equivalent of whiplash. 

It had barely changed over the years: it was still one of the tallest buildings in the area, shining with a professional black paint finish, windows symmetrically dotting the sides, all the way up to the penthouse suite. It wasn’t a typical New York apartment building: this one was the best of the best, made to house celebrities, just so they had a new and literal way to look down on everyone else. Though many of them didn’t like admitting it.

Believe it or not, Lou had been in that suite. He’d been in that suite many, many times. 

He pondered his options for a moment, hands clutching the bottom of his bag protectively as the turtles began trying to grab at him through the material. Did he have a choice? No matter how many times Lou ran the alternatives through his mind, it seemed that the answer to that question was a strong “no”. It wasn’t a terrible idea. It would only be terrible if he got caught. Otherwise, he’d get off scot-free with all the food and essentials he and his boys could possibly need. It wasn’t a long-term solution, but it was far better than nothing. So Lou steeled his resolve, coddled his bag to his chest, and began his trek toward the apartment building.

\--- 

Lou’s infiltration of the building was just as nerve-wracking as it was uneventful. Despite the apartment being in the very center of a fairly crowded street, Lou was able to navigate around to the back entrance through the maze of alleyways without getting himself horribly lost. Yet he still found that his hands shook as he fumbled to turn the knob of the unlocked door. The building was so much more intimidating up close. 

Lou pushed the door open and stumbled into an empty supply closet, which was more of an entire room dedicated to cleaning supplies and a padlocked lost and found box. 

Lou scoffed. Rich people. 

Conveniently, the turtles seemed to have decided to give him a break for the first time in days and had dozed off in the bag, but Lou still kept a protective arm around it as he cracked open the door to the hallway and, upon seeing no one coming or going, made a beeline for the nearest elevator. 

He lucked out again: the elevator came after five seconds of button smashing, and was completely vacant, allowing Lou to slip in undetected and quickly close the door behind him, selecting the button for the very top floor. 

Lou let out a shaky sigh, curling his arms around his bag and slumping to the floor. Now all he had left to do was hope and pray that the security passcode to the penthouse suite hadn’t been changed. And that the owner wasn’t there. Lou didn’t think he could take it if she was: how could he just wander in and make himself known to her after so many years, looking like how he did with a bag of mutated baby turtles strapped to his chest. 

He couldn’t fathom that interaction, so he chose not to think about it. Then the elevator gave a ding, effectively pulling him from his thoughts as the door opened to reveal a long hallway and a single door. Lou pulled himself off the floor as quietly as possible, stepping out into the hall and making sure to check that it was empty before he let the elevator doors close behind him. Thankfully, it was: the hallway only led down to the stairway, after all, and no one used that unless the elevator was broken. 

Lou approached the door to the penthouse suite with caution. He found himself fumbling once again, shaky hands flipping open the metal cover for the keycode panel. It was the same fancy model that had been there the last time Lou visited: installed for the sole purpose of allowing anyone who knew the passcode to unlock the door without a key, because the owner of the suite so often misplaced her own. 

Exhaling a shaky breath, Lou entered the three-word code.

_ Jitsu For Justice _ . 

There was a click, and when Lou tried the door, it opened without a hitch. 

The owner had kept the same code. It was baffling: Lou couldn’t believe that his luck had taken such a wild turn. He’d dodged being discovered at least three separate times since he’d entered the apartment building, and now he appeared to be home free. 

Stepping into the dark apartment was like entering an entirely different world. It was as if nothing had changed at all, and the only thing that reminded him that it had been  _ years _ since he’d set foot in the apartment last were the alternate furniture positions and what looked like new wallpaper. But the energy was still the same. It still smelled all too strongly of artificial air fresheners and that signature new car smell.

There was still a shiny designer stove and fridge in the kitchen, an expensive rug on the floor just beneath his feet, and a plasma TV in the living room, along with a wall-length window that peered out over the city from the best bird’s eye view Lou had ever seen. His feet carried him to the window automatically, arms winding around his backpack as he stared out over the glistening lights of New York. 

What had once been a city that loomed over him and cast shadows on his new life was now a mess of colorful angles: bright, warm lights that seemed to smile up at him, friendly and comforting. Lou could have stared at the sight all day, but a piercing rumble in his stomach quickly reminded him of the reason he’d come in the first place. 

Food was his priority, so he wasted no time crossing the distance between him and the fridge to tug it open, wincing at the sudden, nearly blinding light it drenched him in. After letting his eyes adjust, however, he saw that the fridge was neatly stocked with all kinds of food. The thing that caught his eye, however, was the large platter of various meats and cheeses on the center of the topmost rack. 

Lou hesitated for a moment, claws drumming anxiously on the edge of the fridge door until he ultimately threw his manners to the wind and began gorging on the delicately arranged platter, assuring himself that if the owner knew who was eating it, she wouldn’t mind in the slightest. 

Lou knew there were likely some crackers stashed away in cupboards somewhere, but he simply couldn’t be bothered to tear himself away from his meal to find them. His only goal was to satisfy the hunger burning in his gut, then he would empty as much of the fridge as he could and let his boys eat whatever they liked on their way back home. He would take some blankets and clothes, too, at the very least. 

The owner was rich, Lou assured himself. She could deal with the loss of some food and a few household items. Like he’d said, if she knew who it was going to-

Something beeped. Lou froze where he was, arms buried elbow-deep in the open fridge and his mouth stuffed with cheddar and salami. His ears craned and twitched, listening for exactly where the beep had come from. 

It sounded again, and the door clicked open. 

The keypad.

Lou urged himself to move, but he was still frozen, his fear and the chill from the fridge sending goosebumps up his arms. It was as if his body simply refused to listen to the commands his brain was giving. He couldn’t force himself to run or hide. All he could do was crane his head toward the door and lock eyes with the figure in the dark: a woman who had only just set down her purse before noticing his presence. 

There she was. The owner of the five-star penthouse suite, and the very likely bringer of Lou’s near demise: Tang Shen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rat man broke into my apartment and ate my cheese platter. Can't have shit in Detroit.
> 
> Tang Shen! Yeah, so you guys remember that "secret sixth character" from my tags? Here she is! I know a lot of other people have put forth their ideas for what Tang Shen might have been like should she have had a part to play in Rise, so I decided to do the same. I always imagined her and Lou as best friends, even if they (probably) played love interests in the movies they did together
> 
> Anyway, I should probably let you guys know that I'll be going on a minor one month hiatus after this so I can finish a big writing project for school that I've kind of been putting off, and I know this is so annoying to do after a cliffhanger like this, but I'll try to get the next chapter up in early February! 
> 
> Comments are highly appreciated, as always, and if you have any questions about the story that aren't too spoiler-y, I'd love to answer them! Hope you guys enjoyed the update!


	7. Since You've Been Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lou's encounter with an old friend ends significantly better than he thought it would, but there is still an elephant in the room that will soon need to be addressed, whether Lou wants it to be or not.

The second Tang Shen stepped forward, Lou was snapped out of his deer-in-the-headlights daze and wasted no time slamming the fridge door shut, staggering backward and accidentally bumping into the counter behind him. His brain was working on autopilot now, eyes darting across the darkness of the kitchen, searching wildly for an exit. 

But the lights were still off, and even with the illumination from the light bleeding in through the living room window, Lou could barely make out Tang Shen standing in the short hallway across from him. 

“Excuse me, who are you?” she asked, voice calm, yet with a very clear no-nonsense tone, “how did you get in here?” 

Lou couldn’t answer. She’d recognized his voice in a heartbeat, and he still had no idea what he’d say to her if that happened. His only option was to lead her away from the door so he could circle back around and escape. From there, he’d just have to wing it. 

“I asked you a question,” Tang Shen said. 

She was approaching him now, heels clicking against the hardwood floor as her shadowed face contorted into an all too familiar menacing glare that Lou had always been careful to never put himself at the receiving end of. 

His window for escape was narrowing. He made a reckless dive for the kitchen doorway, claws scraping against the tile, but before he could get out, Tang Shen caught him by the back of his collar. 

“Not so fast.” 

She hooked her elbow around his neck, instantly straining his airway and making him cough and sputter, hands flying to grab at her arm to try and pry it loose.

“Whoever you are, you broke into the wrong house.” 

Lou almost instinctively reached his hands up to clamp them around her shoulders and flip her onto the ground, then quickly thought better of knocking his best friend to the floor and instead opted for driving his elbow directly into her ribs. So he did, in one swift, well-practiced motion, and Tang Shen was temporarily disarmed, gasping and staggering into a nearby counter, clutching her side as Lou caught his breath and scampered out into the living room, blinking heavily to banish the dull throb in his vision. 

Tang Shen had gotten stronger since he’d last seen her, though he couldn’t say he was surprised. It had been years, and although she had always been famous for playing damsels in distress, she was far from one herself. 

“Alright, who are you?!” Tang Shen demanded as she stormed after Lou into the living room, the click of her heels muffled as she stepped onto the carpet, “why were you rooting around in my fridge?!” 

Lou refused to turn and face her, but he knew he would soon have to or risk getting trapped in another headlock. The lights of the city were still streaming in through the window in front of him, and if he turned now, she’d see his face. And he would see hers. How could he let that happen? How could he show her what he’d become?

Then a hand grabbed him by the arm, and he was forced to spin himself around. 

“You’d better start talking, or I-” 

She cut herself off as her eyes landed on Lou’s terrified face, and she was at a loss for words as she scanned his body. His hands flew instinctively to clutch the backpack that hung from his chest, and he found himself gratefully that their ruckus had yet to wake the turtles up. 

It was the first time Lou had seen Tang Shen since the night he was kidnapped, and, just like him, she had changed. Though not quite as drastically. 

She’d cut her hair. Her usual bob had been snipped and smoothed up into a pixie cut with impressive volume. She wore a professional black and white business suit as well, which Lou had never seen her in before. And, despite the well-done makeup she wore, he could see new lines forming on her face that hadn’t been there before. Sunken eyes with subtle bags stared up at him, pupils shrinking in fear as she struggled to find something to say, some question to ask to get a hold of the situation as she so often did. 

Did she recognize him? Lou couldn’t tell, and he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

“What…” she trailed off, taking a moment to gather her thoughts, then asked, in a much softer tone, “who are you? What are you doing in my apartment?” 

Lou let out a shaky sigh. There was no point in hiding it anymore, he supposed. 

“I...just needed some food. I figured...I did not think you would be home.” 

Lou feared for a moment that she wouldn’t recognize his voice, but the widening of her eyes as her hands flew to cover her mouth told him that she did, and Lou wasn’t sure if that was better or worse. 

“Lou...Yoshi...Lou?!” 

He flinched slightly at her volume, baring his teeth in an awkward smile. 

“Hello, Tang Shen.” 

“Wh...what is this?” 

She was still at a relative loss for words, struggling to form an explanation in her mind. She staggered a bit, and Lou instinctively reached out to help her, though both of them cringed as her hands clutched his clawed fingers. She turned them over a few times, mouth gaping as her eyes flew from his hands to his face. 

Lou had never wished that he could read her mind more. 

She took a deep breath, taking one final moment to collect her thoughts, then spoke, “what...happened to you?” 

“Well...long story short: I may have been kidnapped.” 

She deadpanned, “kidnapped? Kidnapped- and they held you for this long?”

“Yes,” he said, slowly pulling his hands from her grasp, “she did.” 

“‘She’?” 

“...Big Mama.” 

He hated having her name on his tongue, but he knew if he didn’t tell Tang Shen the full truth, she’d pry it out of him one way or another. 

“Big Mama?!” she threw her hands up, running them down her face a moment later, “I knew it! What did I tell you, Lou?! I never liked her! Who calls themself ‘Big Mama’?! A crime boss, that’s who!” 

“Is this really the time for an ‘I told you so’?!” 

Tang Shen huffed, hands falling to her hips, and the two of them stood glaring at each other for a moment. 

As tense as the situation was, Lou couldn’t deny he was happier than he’d been in weeks. The familiarity of their -slightly aggressive- back and forth gave Lou an odd sense of peace. It was something they used to do back when things were okay. Back before everything fell to pieces. 

Then Tang Shen smiled, which caught Lou by surprise. He hadn’t seen that smile in years, but it was still as powerful as it had always been, if not with a slight heaviness weighing it down. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she sighed, letting out a shaky laugh, “this is just...the exact kind of trouble I’d expect the great Lou Jitsu to get into.” 

Lou scoffed. Yes, the great Lou Jitsu...he was starting to wish he’d never called himself that. 

“Well, in my defense, I thought she was a perfectly normal human when I proposed to her,” Lou said, resting his hands defensively on the bag strapped to his chest. 

Tang Shen gave him a look, “what do you mean- she isn’t  _ human _ ?” 

“...She is a spider crime boss.” 

Tang Shen snorted a laugh, then her glare returned, “I should’ve known. No human just eats bugs out the air. That  _ alone _ should’ve been a dead giveaway.” 

“Yes- alright, there may have been a few signs.” 

Lou felt a bit foolish for always having dismissed the fact that her apartment had always been constantly covered in cobwebs. 

Tang Shen took a moment to look Lou up and down, and her expression fell once more, “so...she did this to you? She turned you into a...a...” 

Tang Shen had never been one to censor herself, but it was clear she was reluctant to point out the obvious now.

“A rat,” Lou finished for her, “but no, this was not her doing. A vicious Yōkai alchemist by the name of Draxum turned me into this.” 

“...Yōkai? Like, the Japanese myths?” 

Lou let out a long sigh. They had a lot of catching up to do. 

Before he could even think about starting on an explanation, however, there came a shuffling from inside his bag, and, moments later, the turtles began to cry. 

Lou let out a tired sigh of defeat, “oh, not  _ now _ , my boys. I am trying to have a conversation!”

“...I’m sorry?” 

Tang Shen was now staring at Lou’s backpack like some sort of vicious mutant was about to burst from it at any second. 

“Lou...are those...you didn’t-”

“No!” Lou said quickly, holding the bag closer to his chest, “no- they are not. I just took them from Draxum.” 

...That wasn’t much better, was it? 

Tang Shen let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose, “the evil scientist who turned you into a rat?” 

“Yes.” 

“You stole his babies?” 

Lou scoffed, “they were not ‘ _ his _ ’. They were regular turtles, and he turned them into... _ not _ regular turtles when he turned  _ me  _ into a rat.” 

“...Turtles?” 

“Yes.” 

“Alright, let me see.” 

Lou held his arms protectively around the bag, the cries of the turtles having quieted into whispered wails at that point. It wasn’t as if he didn’t trust Tang Shen -quite the opposite- but Lou had been the one taking care of the turtles since he’d rescued them. He wasn’t even sure how they’d react to a new face. 

“Lou, come on,” she pressed, extending her hands toward the back, “I’m not going to hurt them. They’re obviously miserable in there, just let them out of the bag for a bit, yes?” 

“...I think you just want to see a bunch of turtles.” 

“Maybe. But my last statement still stands.” 

Lou let out a sigh of defeat and slowly began to unzip the top of the bag. 

“How would you boys like some fresh air?” 

The turtles jumped at the opportunity, clambering excitedly onto Lou’s hands as he began to raise them out of the bag. Tang Shen’s eyes grew wide as she watched the boys squirm onto Lou’s arms, her mouth falling slightly agape. 

“Those…” 

“Are not regular turtles,” Lou finished, “here- do not just stand there.” 

Snapping herself out of her daze, Tang Shen fell in to scoop up two of the turtles: the red-striped one and his large, spiked brother. Thankfully, they seemed to recognize her as a friend and wasted no time curling up and nuzzling against her hands. 

“Oh...they are very sweet,” she said, giggling as the two turtles Lou was still holding began to climb onto his shoulders, “Lou...how were you planning on taking care of them?” 

“I hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” Lou replied very matter-of-factly. 

Tang Shen smiled, carefully cradling the turtles in her arms, “well, I suppose anything is better than being raised by a mad scientist.” 

“Yes, you get it.” 

Astoundingly, the biggest turtle of the bunch was already beginning to fall asleep once again, nodding off draped over Tang Shen’s arm as his red-striped brother climbed onto her shoulder to begin gnawing at her hooped earring. 

Lou was thankful she didn’t seem to mind. He could feel himself growing more exhausted by the second, eyelids drooping and legs struggling to support his weight. He slowly crossed the living room, shrugging off his backpack and tossing it to the ground as he passed a pure white couch in the center of the room. In a brief moment of indulgence, he allowed himself to fall back onto it. 

Lou had only intended to sit for a moment, but once he hit the cushion he realized he hadn’t sat anywhere remotely comfortable since his five-star suite in Big Mama’s hotel. He collapsed onto the couch, swinging his legs up onto the cushions, letting out a pathetic, relieved sigh and cradling the two turtles to his chest, reveling in the chance to rest his sore, aching feet. 

Tang Shen appeared behind the couch a moment later, smiling down at him with a soft expression that was so rare he thought he might have fallen asleep already. 

“You should get some rest, Lou,” she said, resting her two turtles in the crook of her elbow before reaching her free hand down to pick the purple-spotted one off of Lou’s chest, “we can sort this whole mess out when you wake up.” 

Lou opened his mouth to protest, then let it close. He knew he needed sleep. He couldn’t keep running on only a few hours per night. So he just nodded, rubbing his eyes as Tang Shen picked up the last turtle and cradled him in her arms with the others.

Lou let his eyes flicker shut, already beginning to nod off. He heard footsteps as Tang Shen left to another part of the house, and moments later he heard them again upon her return. Then there was a blanket being draped gently over him, and Lou didn’t hesitate to grab it and curl in on himself. 

It was soft against his calloused hands and fur-covered face, letting a new layer of warmth seep into him, and he found himself wondering when he’d last been able to relax like this. When was the last time he’d even slept with a blanket?

Lou fought against those thoughts as his mind began to spiral and wander. He would worry about all the bad things later. For tonight, he and his boys were safe. And thanks to an old friend, he was finally going to get a full night’s sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Kind of. I finished my project, but it took me a lot longer to get this chapter out than it usually would've, so I think updates from this point on will be a little more scarce. But I do of course intend to finish this story! 
> 
> As always, comments are highly appreciated! Hope you guys enjoyed this update!

**Author's Note:**

> In my defense, I was working on a new update for my one-shot book when I came up with this idea. So, instead of a chapter-length one-shot, you all get a full story that I actually plan to be longer than Lost And Found (and yeah, the title is a song reference)  
> Hope you enjoy!


End file.
